Young girls learn about health and fitness through Double-Dutch

A bubbly and energetic group of about 10 girls participated in a Free-Style Double-Dutch Jump Off training session inside a gymnasium at the Ira Jinkins Recreation Center on Saturday, Jan. 25 in East Oakland.

Oakland, once a hub for Double-Dutch jump rope competitions, is now staging a revival of the sport as its mission is to help inner city children fight obesity.

“We used to have competitions back in 1998, 1999,” said Andriana Mitchell, a girls’ Double-Dutch coach who has been teaching the sport since 2000. “We had a lot of support from parents and the community.”

“I love working with kids. It’s my passion,” Mitchell added. “I’m trying to bring Double-Dutch back to Oakland, to the community while promoting health and fitness.”

Girls between the ages of five and 14 will have more opportunities to learn the lighting-fast, rhythmic sport of Double-Dutch this year at recreation centers in Oakland.

“We don’t have a lot of girls with competition experience, so we are working towards getting teams,” OPR Sports Coordinator Lovella Sein-Colon or “Coach Love” as kids in Oakland call her, said. “We have a lot of girls interested and plan to have many more training clinics this year.”

The Ira Jinkins Recreation Center, at 9175 Edes Ave., is one of several Oakland sites, including the Redwood Heights and Rainbow Recreation Centers, where the sport of Double-Dutch will be reinvigorated. Even though hosting competition events is still in the planning process, “Coach Love” said that Double-Dutch girls could get fit and have fun in the meantime.